Bilocation and Neural Overload are wrongly marked as electricity attacks

[player1]

Bilocation and Neural Overload bypass all resistances, yet they are marked as electrical attacks.

This will trick players thinking that galvanic resistances help, yet they do not.
If psi attack is supposed to go over all resistances, then clearly mark is as "psi attack" type or something, do not mark it as electricity attack.

[Wildan]

Marked through what means?

Short circuits the central nervous system of a living target dealing 10-11 electrical damage. Damage is increased by 10% for every target's point of intelligence above 5.

This damage cannot be shielded and bypasses standard electrical resistance, but can be lowered by the target's resolve.

The game explicitly states that the electrical resistance doesn't help at all.
Bilocation doesn't mention electricity anywhere, only that it's mental damage.

[hilf]

Marked through coloring means.

My suggestion is coloring them grey (because grey matter).

[Coaxl]

The game explicitly states that the electrical resistance doesn't help at all.

Which is great, except that a new player is more likely to encounter Neural Overload through being zapped by it rather than by getting the ability and reading its description.

[player1]

Exactly! If not playing psion, you will never know specific properties of those abilities.

Also, why even mark is as "electrical", when there is no benefit, nor penalty for it being such?

Marked through coloring means.

Correct. It is marked as yellow, and stated to be electrical damage in the log. Plus floating damage has electricity icon.

Yet, there is nothing really electrical about it (not protected by armor, does not injure robots, etc...)

[ShadowRun]

Bitlocation

I think it's "Bilocation" with only the one "T". It makes sense because they (and their doppelganger) are now in two locations. "Bitlocation" wouldn't mean anything as obvious.

It would be good if these spells shorted / stunned robots. I've definitely reasoned that if they're electrical attacks, they should take out robots... except that their descriptions restrict targets to living / humanoids. If they change to be able to take a byte out of 'bots, "bitlocation" (or "bitrot") would be quite reasonable.

[chimaera]

Poison is easier to figure it out, since it is logical that venom applied by wounding isn't the same as a toxic gas.

Psi abilities are confusing, because you have three different abilities, two of which bypass armor and shields and 3rd which doesn't (electrokinesis), but all are displayed as electrical damage in combat. If you haven't played a psi user, you won't know the difference. And the bilocation animation, which is a shadowy figure trying to melee you, isn't helping.

Why not simply rename the neural overload and bilocation damage to neural?

[player1]

Exactly. If ability does not in any way benefit from this property, or is not penalized for being electrical, then why even have it marked as elecrtrical. It could as well be bio, mechanical or cold damage.

[Sanger]

I assume it's because psionics attack the nervous system, which is electrical.

[chimaera]

Except psionics is a made up sci-fi version of magic, so what does it matter? If you rename the damage type to neural, it is still going to be clear that a direct (magical) attack on the nervous system is meant, but it will prevent confusion with other types of electrical attacks.

[Sanger]

OP asked why label it as electrical rather than bio, mechanical or cold - I said probably because short of adding an entirely new damage type specifically for those two abilities, electrical fits the way they're meant to operate best. I don't really have an opinion either way on whether it should have its own damage type, but I never expected to be able to mitigate damage from a mental attack using armour myself.

[chimaera]

Except that you can mitigate damage from a mental attack dealing electrical damage using armor and shield - because that's what electrokinesis is.

If a player hasn't used psi, then I can see how this gets confusing, not everyone has been playing the game since the early access. At least neural overload has a hint in its name, but bilocation looks like a melee electrical attack and electrokinesis is a ranged electrical attack. So you have three psi attacks, all displayed as electricity, but a shield and armor stops only one.

[Sanger]

Except that you can mitigate damage from a mental attack dealing electrical damage using armor and shield - because that's what electrokinesis is.

Electrokinesis is literally chucking a lightning bolt at someone. It's not a mental attack. Neural overload is directly overloading their neurones. Bilocation I can see as being confusing if you aren't aware that the doppleganger is an apparition attacking your brain.

[Styg]

As others assumed, it uses electrical because I didn't want to add a new damage type for mental and electrical fits well enough. I think that the audio-visual feedback makes it quite obvious it's not a regular electrical attack.

[chimaera]

Electrokinesis is literally chucking a lightning bolt at someone. It's not a mental attack. Neural overload is directly overloading their neurones. Bilocation I can see as being confusing if you aren't aware that the doppleganger is an apparition attacking your brain.

And I would call both electrokinesis and neural overload mental attacks, because they both are made with your "mind powers". If you mean "mental attack" as an attack made to the nervous system, then that's my point - renaming it to mental/neural/whatever would make the distinction clear.

I have played the game only after it was released and never played early access, which means I knew very little about it. I started with a psi user, so electrokinesis and neural overload were quite clear from their description in-game, but I had problems figuring out what bilocation does, since I've missed the cave on the silent isle on the first trip. Audio and visual effects weren't that helpful either, if anything they made it more confusing.